Kelmscott Chaucer, Cookery Books, and Oyez Press Archive: Auction Preview

Here are the auctions I'll be watching this week:

Bonhams London holds their Connoisseur's Library sale on Tuesday and Wednesday, 7–8 February, in 792 lots of mostly furniture, art, accoutrements, &c.

New England Book Auctions sells 200 lots of Fine Books & Ephemera on Tuesday, February 7.

Ending on Wednesday, February 8, Bonhams online sale Masters of Photography: From Edward S. Curtis to Berenice Abbott, in 105 lots. A copy of Arthur Fellig Weegee's New York Portfolio (1981), one of just 25 sets, is expected to sell for $12,000–18,000. A 1957 print of Paul Strand's Grazing Horses, Taos, New Mexico, signed, titled and dated by Strand, is estimated at $10,000–15,000. A platinum print of Horst P. Horst's Body Parts, Oyster Bay, NY (1989) could fetch $8,000–10,000, and a gelatin silver print of Flip Schulke's Ali Underwater is estimated at $6,000–9,000.

At Lyon & Turnbull on Wednesday, Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs, in 236 lots. One of 32 "incomplete" copies of the subscribers' edition of T.E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926), inscribed by Lawrence to H.M. Goldie, with some accompanying material. This rates the top estimate of £45,000–55,000. A copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer on paper is estimated at £30,000–50,000. Also available in this sale, a pair of Gandhi's handmade sandals (£15,000–25,000).

Forum Auctions holds an online sale of 151 lots on Thursday, February 9, The Culinary Arts: A Private Library. A first issue copy of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery (1747) is expected to lead the way at £6,000–8,000. A rare copy of the 1780 Complete Collection of Cookery Receipts by Susanna, Elizabeth, and Mary Kellet is estimated at £3,000–4,000, as are Toulouse-Lautrec's La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo célibataire (1930) and an English manuscript recipe book which begins in the late seventeenth century.

On Thursday at PBA Galleries, PBA Platinum: Rare Books & Manuscripts, in 102 lots. A collection of the Oyez Press output and archive is expected to sell for $60,000–90,000, while a first octavo edition of Audubon's Birds could sell for $50,000–80,000. A late fifteenth-century Persian manuscript in Arabic is estimated at $30,000–50,000, and a 1480 Venice Bible could sell for $25,000–35,000.

Addison & Sarova sells 197 lots of Selections from the Library of Maurice Sendak on Sunday, February 12. This will be followed by their Bookworm Sale. The Sendak books are being sold to benefit the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia.